These
commentaries and reports promote the kinds of pseudo-science that
will ensure, one day soon, that all the nation’s schoolchildren (plus
their parents and teachers) are screened for mental illnesses under
outrageous pieces of legislation like the one U.S. Congressman Ron
Paul (R-TX) has worked so hard, and unsuccessfully, to defeat: the
New Freedom Initiative (a.k.a. Universal Mental Health Screening Program).
If mass psychological screening succeeds, regardless of what euphemism
it goes by (“freedom initiative”?), it will morph into a political
litmus test that holds a child’s future hostage to whatever viewpoints
happen not to be politically or socially correct at that time. Unlike
the young man in Stollar’s piece, Alex Raeburn, a child will not have
the luxury of changing his mind, maturing, and learning to live with
his personality quirks. Once a person is labeled “mentally unbalanced,”
they face great difficulty in being taken seriously, ever again.

There
are significant hints in Stollar’s article pointing to the ineffectiveness
of both psychiatric diagnoses and drugs. One psychiatrist is said
to have just dashed off a prescription for Mellaril, “a drug originally
used for schizophrenia.” Then the boy was treated for depression.
The doctor started him on the antidepressant Zoloft, at which point
young Alex became suicidal. At length, the doctor opts for “bipolar
disorder.” I call this “shot-in-the-dark medicine.”

Whenever
a drug seems to work for psychological ailments, nobody knows why
or how, a fact confirmed in Stollar’s article. Experts concede that
there is no medical test (blood, x-ray, chemical measurement) for
bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, mania or, I might add,
for virtually any of the mental “illnesses” listed in the entire Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of the
mental health profession.

So,
just what kind of medicine is this? If we were talking about a painkiller
like Vioxx, and it turned out people keeled over after taking it,
that drug would be pulled from the market faster than you could say
“ouch!” If there is no medical test, then by definition, there can
be no diagnosis. All you have left are a bunch of quirky personality
traits. Larry Barber, the marriage and family therapist quoted in
Stollar’s piece, repeats what many dissident psychiatrists, such as
Drs. Peter Breggin and David Healy have already stated: that psychiatric
drugs mainly “blunt [the] ability to function.” They do not cure anything.

In
an article published in the March issue of Chronicles: A Magazine
of the American Culture “Has America Lost Her Moral Gag Reflex?”),
I wrote about Dr. Franz J. Kallmann, who fled to America in the mid-1930’s,
after having served under Ernst Rüdin, head of Hitler’s “racial hygiene”
program. It is appropriate here to revisit this man, who somehow received
accolades for his ideas in the New York Times. Even after he
arrived on American shores to escape the Third Reich’s henchmen, he
warned of rampant mental illness, exclaiming that if something weren’t
done soon, schizophrenics would outnumber normal individuals. He went
on to argue in favor of mass mental health screening and “psychiatric
genetics” (a.k.a. parent licensing),

Stollar’s
article is treading on some very thin ice, and so are legislators
and educators who buy in to increased mental health canvassing in
schools and among parents.

Childhood
is extremely difficult for some kids, and parenting is more difficult
still. I, too, threatened to kill myself, had disconcerting mood swings,
talked fast and would pout for hours or days in silence to get my
own way. Fortunately, I had wise parents who bit their lips, literally,
and said, “Fine, your tough luck, not ours.” It was the hardest thing
they ever did, but guess what? I decided making wild threats was not
a good way to get attention. I grew up. My parents always knew what
was going on. They were there. They set limits. I matured. And I learned
to live with my idiosyncrasies. As everyone must, sooner or later.

Without
our quirks, eccentricities and peculiarities, we no longer are capable
of harnessing the genius of human creativity and that precious commodity
so revered by the politically correct elites, diversity.

Beverly Eakman is an Educator, 9 years: 1968-1974,
1979-1981. Specialties: English and Literature.

Science Editor, Technical Writer and Editor-in-Chief
of official newspaper, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
1974-1979. Technical piece, "David, the Bubble Baby," picked up by popular
press and turned into a movie starring John Travolta.

Chief speech writer, National Council for Better
Education, 1984-1986; for the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, Commission
on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, 1986-1987; for the Voice of
America Director, 1987-1989; and for U.S. Department of Justice, Gerald
R. Regier, 1991-1993.

Unlike the young man in Stollar’s piece, Alex Raeburn, a child will not
have the luxury of changing his mind, maturing, and learning to live with
his personality quirks. Once a person is labeled “mentally unbalanced,”
they face great difficulty in being taken seriously, ever again.